1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to browsing and/or searching various information sources, and more particularly to searching and/or presenting information from multiple information sources in a personalized and organized manner.
2. Description of Related Art
Web browsers and electronic program guides permit a user to browse various information sources such as Web sites, television program listings, and music collections. Typically, such searches are limited to one type of collection of information. For example, a user who is interested in information on a particular television program may browse the Web using a search engine, which will present the user with a listing of Web sites related to the particular television program. However, the results typically would not include the time when the particular television program is being shown in the user's viewing area. Television schedule information typically would have to be accessed separately using, for example, an electronic program guide.
Tools used for searching Web sites have been improved by including a capability of generating recommendations based on a profile of the user's interests, as have tools for viewing television and tools for listening to music. For example, a person may use a Web browser to access a search engine to obtain list of recommended Web sites based on the person's historical browsing activities, a person wishing to watch television may receive a list of recommended television programs to view based on the person's historical television viewing activities, and a person wishing to listen to music may receive a list of recommended music to listen to based on the person's historical listening activities
Various proposals have been made to improve the usefulness of searching by providing an integrated approach to specifying and searching multiple information resources. While some of these proposals do generally advance the state of the art, further improvements are needed that use existing standards and a plethora of new component technologies to provide a search tool that gives the user greater access to a variety of different content types from a variety of different sources in a personalized, easy and intuitive way.